My birth story by Nicola Wilkinson Miah

I was asked to write my birth story, which seems like yesterday but my girls are 2.5 years now. In no way do I mean to upset anyone, but this was just how mine happened.

My pregancy itself was ok, never really suffered morning sickness just sore back and a huge tummy. I always got comments on my size and I knew from an early stage roughly at the 21 week scan that one of my twins was going to be very small meaning I was going to be monitored more.

Towards the 28th week I was told that I would need to go to the day assessment unit twice a week and have ultrasounds fortnightly to keep an eye on my girls.
They were very cheeky and gave the midwifes a hard time trying to find their heart beats…

I was booked to see the consultant and they advised me to have a c section which I was open minded about as I have an older daughter who’s birth ended in an emergency c-section which made me very relaxed about the twins’ birth! They told me as twin A was a good size I could have her naturally , but as twin B was breech and very small I might have to have her rotated by hand and could still end up with the possibility of having a c-section after all. In the end I opted for a c-section as I already have the scar and didn’t want to cause her any stress. So we were booked in, which was a strange feeling knowing what day your babies were being born.

During my scans they showed that one twin was growing well but the other twin was growing very slowly and was very small. Each time I saw a midwife they informed me that twin B will most likely end up in SCBU due to her weight and size.

Towards the end of my pregnancy I found that I had a vitamin D deficiency and had to have a few injections to bump my levels up. The midwife noticed also that my blood platelets were getting slightly low. I had the injections in my bottom to mature my girls lungs to get them ready for their birth. ( pregnancy is so glamorous)

That week I made sure I had extra time with my older daughter whom was 4 at the time. She came to every appointment, every scan so she felt part of the pregnancy. She was a bright little thing for her age and noticed mummy was getting tired and things were changing- Moses baskets coming in, baby bits arriving. I had a back up plan for her to stay with my parents just in case anything went wrong or took longer then we anticipated.

As I was booked in for Friday morning to have my girls, my parents took my oldest daughter to school which was a relief to know she was happy and safe and not worrying about me. I remember walking into West Middlesex Hospital with a mixture of happiness and excitement. Lots of questions running around my head like are they going to be ok, how small will she be? Whilst sitting in the waiting room, I was very calm and all I could think about was I get to cuddle my girls soon.

When I was called in and was waiting on a bed getting ready for theatre, the doctor informed me that my blood platelets were very low and I might have to go home with medicine to bump it up!
They consulted with other medical members regarding if it was safe enough to go through with the c -section. That waiting time seemed to be ages, but probably wasn’t as long as I thought it was.
The doctor came back to me to say they were happy to go ahead as they were worried about the little one. However I would have to have a platelet transfusion- which I was more then happy to have!

My hubby looked dashing in the clothes they gave him to wear…

I remember sitting on the bed, when giving me the epidural and I was anticipating pain, but I felt nothing! I had a slight reaction to the transfusion and the hospital were wonderful and sorted it out.

Finally twin A was born happy and healthy and I burst out crying as relieved to see her. 2 mins later twin B was out. I didn’t get to see her, as she needed help to start breathing so they asked my hubby a question which was a complete blur. He managed to stand up and blow her a kiss as they took her to SCBU.

Whilst I was in the recovery bed outside I was bleeding and had clots so I had to have it extracted a few times . After this had stopped I was put in a side room with a midwife to monitor me as I wasn’t feeling great. We were asked permission regarding twin B to have blood extracted from her and a solution to replace it as her blood was too thick, which was the cause of her lack of growth. We got to see her a few hours after in SCBU and i could give her a cuddle.

We stayed in hospital for 8 days on a side room and luckily hubby could stay. During our stay twin B came to stay with us one night, which was lovely, you could tell the girls liked being together again. The SCBU staff were amazing and helped her immensely. Luckily I had a plan for my oldest daughter and she came to see us everyday after school as she wasn’t far. I think this helped her understand why mummy and daddy were at hospital and she was at nannies house.

We all went home afterwards and thrived. My girls are happy, healthy and very cheeky toddlers, which I would not change for the world.

Finally given everything that happened the hospital was amazing and we could not fault anything. The care they gave to all 3 of us and SCBU was out of this world and we can’t thank them enough.

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